East Ponce de Leon Avenue @ East Commerce Drive Decatur, GA (pic courtesy of DM)

In this morning’s New York Times, professional opinionist hails Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed as a the new breed of “pay-as-you-go progressive” we could stand to see a few more of in this country.

One of the best of this new breed of leaders is Atlanta’s inspiring mayor, 41-year-old Kasim Reed. A former Georgia state senator, Reed won Atlanta’s mayoral race in December 2009 by 714 votes. The day he took office, Atlanta had $7.4 million in reserves, an out-of-control budget and was laying off so many firefighters there were only three personnel on a truck, below national standards. A year later, it has $58 million in reserves, and Reed has a 70 percent approval rating — which he earned the hard way.

Friedman goes on to recount some of the tough fiscal decisions Reed has made over his first year in office, reallocating funds to do things like hire more Atlanta firefighters, instead of “kicking the can down the road”.

So if it’s true that people aren’t just giving lip-service about “pay-as-you-go” politicos, why haven’t Kasim Reed-types taken offices all across the country, already?

Perhaps I’m expecting a bit much from our purposely slow-and-steady democratic process.